tihvavy  of  Che  theological  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON    •    NEW  JERSEY 

PRESENTED  BY 

A.    G.    Caineron.  Ph.D. 


-s^/o 


M 


PKESIDENT'S    ADDEESS. 


lyis  my  high  privilege,  this  evening,  gentlemen,  to  welcome 
yoi/to  the  returned  anniversary  of  the  State  Medical  Society 
of  T^ew  Jersey.  Ninety-nine  years  of  its  existence  are  now- 
joined  to  the  memories  of  the  past,  and  the  fresh,  dewy  da-^vn 
of  its  Imndredth  natal  morn  is  already  casting  its  twilight 
shadows  upon  us.  Venerable  with  the  acquirements  of  age, 
yet  vigorous  with  the  energ}'-  of  youth,  it  again  welcomes  us 
to  the  council-board  of  professional  re-union,  and  bids  us  ex- 
change the  kindred  sympathies  of  a  mutual  art. 

We  come  together  to  review  the  medical  history  of  the 
year,  to  maintain  the  true  courtesy  of  our  calling,  to  pay  defer- 
ence to  the  mementoes  of  the  past,  to  measure  the  claims  and 
progress  of  our  science,  to  join  the  hands  of  a  genial  friend- 
ship, and  to  bid  each  other  God-speed  in  all  that  relates  to  the 
true  advancement  of  the  noble  profession  to  which  are  devoted 
the  stirring  energies  of  our  manhood. 

But  a  temporary  sadness  comes  over  my  heart  as  I  proceed 
to  the  duty  which  devolves  upon  me.  I  can  not  forget  that 
since  last  we  met,  from  among  the  honored  members  of  this 
Society,  one  has  fallen,  who,  each  returning  year,  was  wont  to 
greet  us  here,  with  all  the  warmth  of  personal  and  professional 
attachment.  You  have  not  forgotten  his  last  utterance  in  our 
midst.  It  was  a  plea  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  unfortunate 
humanity  ;  in  which  the  arguments,  derived  from  elaborate  in- 
vestigation, were  presented  with  the  earnest  voice  and  the 
thrilHng  enthusiasm  of  a  hving  sympathy.     He  felt  that  while 

1 


4  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JERSEY. 

others  may  be  i^hilanthropists  by  occasion,  the  physician  is 
such  also  by  profession  ;  and,  had  he  known  his  time  to  be  so 
short,  he  could  not  have  pronounced  a  valedictory  more  con- 
sonant with  himself,  or  said  parting  words  more  worthy  of  his 
honored  memory.  The  name  of  Condit,  for  his  own  sake,  as 
well  as  for  his  father's  sake,  will  not  be  forgotten  by  us  ;  and 
the  mantle  of  their  honor  shall  inspire  us  to  be  faithful  to  our 
profession,  to  humanity,  and  to  God. 

But  my  duty  to-night  is  not  so  much  to  speak  of  our  cher- 
ished dead,  as  to  the  living  members  of  a  living  profession.  1 
beg  that  you  will  pardon  me  the  formality  of  an  extended  in- 
troduction, and  permit  me  to  propose,  as  the  subject  of  ad- 
dress this  evening, 

OUR  PROFESSIOX  IN  ITS    THKEE-FOLD  RELATIONS,  AS  A  SCIENCE,  A  BUSINESS,  AND 

AN  ART. 

At  the  vej-y  outset  of  student  life,  Medicine  is  presented  to 
us  as  a  science,  vast  in  the  area  Avliich  it  encompasses  ;  and 
when  years  of  practice  have  added  to  the  treasuries  of  knowl- 
edge and  experience,  its  claims  as  such  are  ever  impressing 
themselves  upon  us.  And  yet  we  hSve  stout  and  sturdy  crit- 
icisms, to  meet  us,  in  respect  to  it.  In  the  midst  of  our  soar- 
ings to  its  heights,  our  penetration  into  its  depths,  our  meas- 
urings  of  its  lengths  and  its  breadths,  the  world  stands  up, 
and,  striking  a  blow  at  its  foundations,  asks,  "  Is  it  a  science  at 
all."  Men,  perhaps  learned  in  other  respects,  but  ignorant  as 
to  it,  too  often  bring  it  to  their  false  judgment-bars,  and,  from 
isolated  facts  and  vague  generalities,  give  sentence  in  the  neg- 
ative. The  poet  that  thrills  me  with  the  real  philosophy  of 
verse,  presides,  over  a  college  for  graduating  quacks.  My  city 
pastor  gives  diluted  tinctures  to  his  complaining  horse ;  and  a 
learned  theological  professor,  by  the  identical  argument,  which, 
if  applied  to  his  own  theme  of  instruction,  would  land  him  and 
it  into  hideous  infidelity,  assumes  that  the  human  organism, 
and  its  relations  to  disease  and  remedies,  is  so  mysterious  and 
complex,  that  it  is  safest  to  rely  upon  a  system  which  can  do 
no  harm.     Many  thus  (Avho  are  well  instructed  in  the  other 


PRESIDENT'S   ADDRESS.  5 

sciences  or  in  literature)  infer  that  the}^'  are  abundantly  com- 
petent to  decide  upon  this.  Now  and  then  a  physician  who, 
because  he  cannot  understand  everything,  concludes  he  under- 
stands nothing,  by  tlie  false  logic  of  doubt  falls  into  the  same 
error  ;  and  even  a  late  President  of  the  Excelsior  Strio  Pc> 
ciety  has  announced  the  doctrine  that  Medicine,  as  an  art,  has 
T^ever  been  profited  by  Medicine  as  a  science.  In  mind,  as  in 
nature,  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces  sometimes  loose  their 
co-ordinate  action ;  the  orbit  is  disturbed,  and  great  planets  be- 
come little  asteroids.  History  had  its  Gibbon,  as  a  man,  a 
downfall  like  that  of  Rome ;  philosophy  its  Voltaire  5  astron- 
omy its  La  Place  ;  and  Religion  its  Colenso  ;  and  the  fact  that 
now  and  then  a  great  soul  goes  overboard  from  the  vessel 
which  moves,  even  upon  unfathomed  depths,  as  on  a  friendly 
clement,  only  shows  the  occasional  frailty  of  reason,  in  contrast 
with  the  substantial  basis  of  truth. 

If  we  could  submit  this  ^yhole  question  to  antiquity,  and  to 
the  confirmed  verdict  of  the  ages,  we  should  have  no  trouble. 
The  ancients  saw  in  man,  even  as  to  his  bod}^,  a  condensation 
of  human  knowledge,  and  an  object  for  scientific  research,  such 
as  was  presented  in  no  other  created  thing,  and  thus  made  of 
the   ^'- yvG^vi  5SavT0v^''  a  science  by  itself. 

They  viewed  the  human  form  as  the  grandest  idea  of  nature, 
developecf  it  by  the  skill  of  the  athlete,  sculptured  it  in  the 
choicest  of  Parian  marble,  painted  it  in  enduring  colors  on 
speaking  canvass,  and  when  they  found  an  art  whose  design 
'Was  to  preserve  it,  they  called  it  the  Science  of  Physic — not 
physic  iif  the  paltry  sense  of  drugs,  but  cpvai?,  Nature's  grand 
embodiment,  its  most  meaning  text ;  and  amid  all  the  false 
systems  of  medical  theory  and  medical  practice,  that  have 
gleamed  across  the  galaxy  of  almost  every  decade,  with  Mi- 
nerva, the  goddess  of  wisdom,  as  its  patron  deity,  it  has  pre- 
served for  us  that  which  it  fears  not  to  send  word  along  the 
wires  of  time  is  the  true  science  and  art  of  medicine.  But 
this  19th  century  will  not  take  antiquity  at  its  word.  It  is  a 
mighty  doubter — ^full  of  endless  questionings.  Human  thought 
>!eeks  new  channels.     There  is  more  excitement  and  vivacity 


6  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OP   NEW-JERSEY. 

in  a  freshet,  breaking  over  into  new  courses,  than  in  the  ocean 
stajang  where  it  belongs,  lasting  portraiture  of  the  unchanged 
Infinite. 

Men  say  not  the  old  is  better,  but  give  us  the  new,  bub- 
bling and  boiling  though  it  may  be  with  scum.  The  old  Fa- 
lernian  will  not  do.  Champajgne  and  carbon  gas  are  more 
representative.  In  government,  in  law,  in  ethics,  they  call  in 
question  the  grand  consolidations  and  expressions  of  the  past. 
America,  especially,  with  its  vindicated  nationality,  its  stirring- 
activity  in  all  that  relates  to  mind  or  matter,  breathes  its  spirit 
of  inquiry  over  every  science,  and  with  its  "  cui  bono,"  its 
whys  and  its  wherefores,  puts  the  past  to  its  test  without  a 
bow  to  "your  Riverence."  We^  must  not,  therefore,  complain 
if  the  great  fortress  of  Esculapius,  with  its  massive  turrets  and 
elaborated  enclosure,  is  battered  and  stormed  like  a  citadel ;  or 
if,  beside  it,  some  pseudo-medical  philosopher  opens  up  his 
arsenal,  and  with  sarsaparilla,  seaweed  tonic,  life  bitters,  teeth- 
ing fluid,  and  cephalic  pills,  builds  on  foundations  cemented 
with  prepared  glue  imposing  superstructures. 

In  all  this  there  lurks,  for  us,  no  real  harm.  In  such  a  pro- 
fession as  ours,  founded  in  antiquity,  and  sustained,  developed, 
itnd  improved  through  centuries,  we  need  sometimes  to  take 
reckoning,  in  order  to  appreciate  it.  Truth  does  not  always 
move  in  unobstructed  air-lines.  It  fronts  the  cave  of  iEolus,  and 
often  faces  grim  North-westers.  Even  in  a  seeming  calm,  gales 
spring  up  about  it;  but,  tliough  its  progress  is  thus  made  zig- 
zag, the  very  adverse  winds  beat  it  forward.  Although  not  an 
ocean  steamer,  plowing  its  way  through  the  broad  bpne,  care- 
less of  wind  or  tide,  it  is  a  little  Pinta,  beating  hither  and 
thither,  not  in  vain.  Though  the  crew  are  sometimes  discour- 
aged, and  Faith  below  deck  instead  of  at  the  helm,  there  are 
men  like  Columbus  aboard,  and  faithful  ones  watching  around 
the  mast-head ;  and,  when  all  is  dark  and  mutinous,  "  I  see  a 
light ",  breaks  the  spell  of  the  shoreless  sea,  and  the  very  drift- 
wood tells  of  land.  True  science  and  true  art,  which  are  al- 
ways practical  epitomes  of  truth,  have  a  similar  experience, 
but  need  never  fear  the  rude  buffethigs  of  change  or  the  test 
of  searching  criticism. 


president's  address.  7 

Let  us  then  fully  to  the  question :  Is  medicine  a  science  ? 
True  science  has  three  prominent  characteristics : 

It  deals  with  some  object  of  nature,  with  a  view  of  eliciting 
truth. 

It  has  definite  and  determinate  laws. 

These  laws  are  studied  in  reference  to  their  practical  appli- 
cation and  results. 

Surely  our  profession  answers  this  first  test  of  a  science.  It 
deals  with  the  grandest  object  of  nature  in  order  to  define  its 
method  of  action.  The  sublimest  combination  of  the  handi- 
work of  Divinity  is  the  material  for  our  specific  study.  If  the 
natural  philosopher,  in  the  earnest  investigation  of  his  partic- 
ular department,  feels  the  thrill  and  joy  of  science,  its  poetry, 
its  pathos,  its  logic — if,  as  he  analj'^ses  the  flower,  questions  the 
sandstone  or  fossil,  or  scans  the  heavens  Avith  magnified  vision, 
he  is  engaged  in  scientific  inquiry,  how  much  more  the  physi- 
cian, who,  in  one  embodiment,  can  study  both  material  and  im- 
material things,  whose  science  is  that  of  matter  and  its  pre- 
servation ;  who  has  for  analysis  the  most  wonderful  of  mechan- 
isms, the  most  admirable  of  combinations,  and  the  most  elabo- 
rate connections  of  cause  and  effect.  The  man  of  numbers 
may  have  to  deal  more  with  axioms  and  theorems,  the  meta- 
physician may  soar  higher  into  the  regions  of  the  Infinite,  the 
natural  philosopher,  in  his  questionings  of  mother  earth,  maj- 
have  a  wider  field  from  which  to  gather  his  cabinets  and  herb- 
ariums, and  the  astronomer  a  wider  range  through  the  star-lit 
avenues  of  space,  but  this  microcosm,  man,  is  equal  to  them 
all.  In  the  construction  of  bone,  so  as  to  unite  strength  with 
lightnesss  and  mobility ;  in  the  arrangement  of  muscle  and 
tendon,  so  as  to  secure  mechanical  power  at  no  loss  of  space  ; 
in  the  organs  of  nutrition  and  assimilation,  performing  func- 
tions as  elaborate  and  successful  as  the  harmony  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  in  the  lungs,  inhaling,  the  sweet,  rustling  air,  and  trans- 
acting the  unique  chemistry  of  life  ;  in  the  heart,  lone  prototype 
of  perpetual  motion,  throbbing  out  the  melody  of  life,  the  soul 
rhythm  of  humanity ;  in  the  ear,  with  its  bony  chain-work,  and 
its  labyrintii  of  waters  rippling  to  the  echoings  of  sound :  in 


8  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OP   NEW-JERSEY. 

the  eyes,  star  planets  of  the  mind,  glorious  in  their  orbits  as 
Castor  and  Pollux,  the  Gemini  of  the  zodiac  ;  in  the  senses,  all 
combining  the  material  and  immaterial  as  no  science  can  fully 
display,  and  the  whole  subject  to  the  nerve,  net-work  of 
organic  and  inorganic  life — surely,  I  need  no  longer  stay  my 
course  to  prove  that  the  science  of  nature  is  hfere  enthroned 
in  all  the  glory  of  its  royalty.  And  the  physician  takes  hold 
upon  it  just  on  purpose  for  investigation.  To  him  it  is  the 
more  than  golden  ore-bed  of  material,  and  its  principles,  by 
studious  zeal  perceived,  constitute  science — not  symbolized,  but 
realized — not  defined,  but  synonymed — not  described,  but  felt 
like  love. 

Nor  is  it  general  in  its  character. 

II.  It  has  definite  and  determinate  laws. 

It  deals  with  man  sjjecifically.  It  has  to  do  with  synthesis 
and  analysis,  and  obtains  decisive  results  by  strictly  scientific 
methods.  If  not  demonstrative,  lil^e  Euclid,  it  is  definite  with 
the  logic  of  accumulated  facts.  Quinine  and  opium  have  their 
results  as  w^ell  as  a  binomial  theorem.  There  are  certainties  in 
this  world  besides  logarithms  and  logic.  Because  mathematics, 
as  a  pure  science,  is  built  only  on  Self-evident  truths,  or  be- 
cause metaphysics  is  built  on  certain  generally  admitted  truths, 
we  are  by  no  means  to  conclude  that  only  these  have  deter- 
minate laws.  When,  indeed,  as  in  the  natural  sciences,  you 
bring  togetlier  the  various  facts  which  observation  has  afforded, 
and  thus  have  an  assemblage  of  the  general  principles  of  an 
art,  YOU  really  come  directly  back  to  the  very  kind  of  reason- 
ing upon  which  rest  all  the  truths  of  metaphysics,  i.e.,  you  have 
as  a  basis  generally  acknowledged  facts. 

Experiment  itself  is  an  effort  in  a  scientific  direction,  and 
when  you  classify  the  ascertained  results  of  a  series  of  well 
conducted,  oft  repeated  experiments,  you  have  experience,  and 
that  is  as  really  a  foundation  and  a  part  of  real  knowledge,  as 
to  rest  upon  the  laws  of  personal  identity  or  the  axioms  of 
numerical  formulaB.  Experience  has  the  word  experiment  as 
its  root,  and  success  as  its  fruit,  and  by  its  arranged  aggrega- 
tion of  facts,  assumes  all  the  strength  and  dignity  and  certainty 


PRESIDENT'S   ADDRESS.  9 

of  a  science.  It  is  the  general  assent  of  the  learned  to  these 
views,  that  has  given  the  Baconian  and  Newtonian  philoso- 
phies their  hold  on  the  reasonings  of  men.  We  have  come  to 
feel  and  know  that  it  is  safe  to  assume,  that  what  is  true  of  a 
vast  numbers  of  individuals  of  a  class,  is  true  of  the  class  ;  and 
hence  the  inductive  method  of  Bacon,  and  still  more  Newton, 
applying  the  relations  of  cause  and  effect  to  natural  science 
has  shown  us,  that  deductions  from  these  natural  relations,  as 
determined  by  repeated  observations,  are  safe  as  foundations, 
and  yield  logical  results.  With  such  reflected  light,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  recognize  medicine  as  a  science  with  fixed  and  de- 
termined laws.  We  call  Theology  a  science,  not  because  it  is 
finished  and  has  no  mysteries,  but  because  with  Faith  as  the 
substance  of  things  hoped  for,  and  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen,  it  reasons  correctly  of  God  and  of  man  in  his  relations  to 
him.  We  call  Law  a  science,  because  it  has  principles  founded 
on  eternal  equity  ;  and  though  often  pettifoggers  go  quibbling 
with  it,  and  make  it  dispense  injustice,  it  loses  not  its  high 
behest.  So  we  call  Medicine  a  science,  because  it  too  has 
fundamental  principles,  and  arrives  at  its  conclusion  by  evi- 
dence derived  from  nature,  experience  and  observation.  We 
cannot  select  a  single  organ  of  the  body  in  reference  to  which 
enough  is  not  known  to  entitle  the  study  thereof  to  the  name 
of  science,  because  of  the  specific  laws  which  relate  to  it.  We 
know  from  absolute  investigation  of  organ  and  function,  what 
kind  of  food  is  suited  to  the  human  organism,  why  pure  air  is 
necessary  for  the  lungs,  and  what  pure  air  is  ;  why  heart  and 
brain  must  sufier  from  causes  that  disturb  the  equilibrium  of 
circulation  ;  why  impression  made  upon  the  skin  by  sudden 
alternations  of  temperature  must  effect  the  inner  man,  and  so 
of  multitudes  of  facts  of  wdiich  these  are  but  the  passing  illustra- 
tion. Pathology  too,  as  well  as  health,  has  its  appreciable 
laws.  Our  profession  includes  within  its  pale  a  knowledge  of 
the  antecedents  and  sequehe  of  disease,  its  cause,  its  cure,  its 
effects.  We  hioiu  that  as  a  rule,  its  ana3sthetics  and  sedatives 
will  control  pain,  and  that  other  remedies  are  in  certain  definite 
and  specified  cases  curative,  and  can  rely  upon  them  just  as 


10  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF   NEW- JERSEY. 

well  as  the  Mathematician,  on  the  laws  of  Parallax,  the  Logi- 
cian on  the  facts  of  established  identity,  or  the  Farmer  on  the 
general  results  of  Agriculture.  There  may  be  possible  and 
even  unknown  contingencies,  interrupting  the  process  of  the 
law ;  but  the  mariner's  needle,  though  it  has  its  mysterious 
variations,  is  on  the  whole  a  faithful  guide  amid  ocean  billows. 
The  learned  and  experienced  physician  knows  that  he  can 
approach  disease  with  scientific  forecast,  and  while  none  in  this 
or  any  other  science  are  absolutely  free  from  puzzling  doubts, 
yet  only  those  are  skeptical  who  are  unduly  influenced  by 
isolated  cases,  or  who  instead  of  lacking  knowledge,  lack  the 
ability  to  practicalize  and  apply  it. 

In  the  character  of  the  foundations  upon  which  it  rests  and 
its  superstructure,  it  will,  in  its  harmonious  subjection  to  prin- 
ciples, compare  favorably  with  any  of  the  sciences  of  material 
life.  Although  it  is  not  a  very  Parthenon  with  every  frescoe 
finished,  and  every  column  fluted  and  assigned,  it  is  nevertheless 
an  edifice  with  great  huge  blocks  of  granite  truth  for  its  corners, 
upbuilded  with  stones  polished  after  the  similitude  of  a  palace, 
and  better  than  if  finished,  each  year  is  adding  both  to  its  solid- 
ities and  adornments.  * 

Nor  need  I  spend  long  time  in  noticing  the  third  respect  in 
which  medicine  answers  the  description  of  a  true  science.  The 
activities  of  our  art  are  the  standing  proof  that  it  is  studied 
in  reference  to  its  practical  application  and  results.  It  does 
not  wrap  the  drapery  of  conscious  greatness  about  it,  and  then 
lie  down  to  pleasant  dreams.  It  is  studied,  not  for  theory,  but 
for  practice.  Having  classified  its  truths,  with  admirable 
promptness,  it  brings  them  to  apply  to  the  daily  necessities  of 
life.  It  has  no  cold  abstract  formulas  on  which  to  prate,  but 
with  a  living  ardor  submits  each  and  all  to  the  test  of  utility. 
Its  constant  effort  is,  mutually,  to  correct  its  science  and  its 
-art  by  each  other,  to  look  to  the  one  as  the  confirmative  or  test 
of  the  other,  and  it  thus  seeks  to  have  good  theory  only  that  it 
may  have  good  practice.  Its  whole  object  is  result — such 
result  as  identifies  the  causes  of  disease  and  prevents  them  ;  as 
seeks  their  cure  and  overcomes  them,  or  when  acknowledging 


president's  addbess.  11 

their  mortal  power,  controls,  assuages  and  delays  them. 
This,  indeed,  is  science  awake  for  a  cause;  and  that  the  preser- 
vation and  prolongation  of  human  life.  With  such  foundations, 
such  aims,  such  devotion,  it  stands  forth  pre-eminently  a  science, 
in  the  subject  with  which  it  deals — the  determinate  laws  which 
govern  the  utilitarian  effort  it  puts  forth. 

I  ask  you  next  to  notice  it  as  a  progressive  science,  and  thus 
still  more  appreciate  the  glory  of  our  calling.  Where,  in  all 
the  range  of  hinnan  investigation,  will  3^ou  find  a  field  in  which 
is  displayed  more  of  intellectual  activity  and  patient  research. 
Where  will  you  go  to  find  more  of  the  enthusiasm  of  true  phi- 
losophers ;  more  of  the  zeal  of  fond,  devoted  pursuit,  or  more 
rapid  accumulations  of  the  facts  and  principles  which  make  up 
a  science. 

In  order  to  measure  its  progress,  Ave  need  not  to  commence 
with  the  history  of  medicine.  We  need  only  to  retrace  our 
steps  within  the  bounds  of  the  present  century  to  perceive 
that  our  profession  is  all  alive,  not  only  with  the  spirit  and 
power,  but  with  the  fruits  of  active  advancement.  Early  in 
the  present  century  a  new  idea,  as  to  the  proper  basis  of  med- 
ical truth,  commended  itself  to  the  professional  mind.  Too 
long  had  we  relied  upon  the  aphorisms  of  some  prominent 
medical  author,  or  upon  the  empirical  popularity  of  individual 
practitioners.  But  a  French  work,  under  the  title,  "  Med- 
icine Illustrated  by  Observation  and  the  Examination  of  Bod- 
ies," struck  the  key-note  which  was  to  be  the  guide  of  future 
and  of  successful  investigation.  The  profession  commenced, 
as  it  had  never  learned  before,  to  look  to  ascertained  facts,  to 
statistical  record,  to  anatomical  and  careful  observation,  as 
the  only  true  bases  of  substantial  advance.  From  dealing 
with  general  opinions,  it  came  to  inquire  for  specific  facts.  It 
studied  disease,  not  only  in  view  of  symptoms,  but  of  lesions. 
It  penetrated  into  physiology  that  it  might  know  what  should 
be,  and  into  pathology  that  it  might  ascertain  what  was. 
Broussais  on  Chronic  Inflammations ;  Corvisart,  Laennec,  Gri- 
solle,  Bouillaud,  and  Hope,  on  the  Lungs  ;  Lallemand,  Mar- 
tinet, &c.,  on  the  Brain  ;  Andral  and  Gavarret  on  the  Blood  ; 


12  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JERSEY. 

Raver  on  the  Kidneys  ;  Bichet  in  General  Anatomy  ;  Collins 
and  Ramsbotham  in  Practical  Midwifery  ;  and  multitudes  of 
other  more  recent  o"bservers  in  every  department  of  our  sci- 
ence, have  given  direction  and  precision  to  our  inquiries.  A 
zeal  arose  to  enrich  medicine  by  facts,  and  to  rely  upon  that 
kind  of  conclusion,  of  which  intelligent  examination,  careful 
diagnosis,  and  an  accurate  enumeration  of  the  ascertained 
phenomena  of  disease,  in  numerous  classified  cases,  consti- 
tvited  the  material  substance.  The  profession  came  to  feel 
that  it  must  rest  its  claims  as  a  science  upon  a  careful  study 
of  relations  of  cause  and  effect,  of  organ  and  function,  of  at- 
tack and  lesion,  of  disease  and  remedy,  derived,  not  by  any 
philosophical  abstraction,  or  from  results  in  a  limited  sphere, 
but  from  a  numerical  comparison  of  a  large  number  of  cases, 
in  which  all  points  should  be  stated  with  clinical  exactness. 
Hence,  the  remark  of  Sir  Henry  Holland  is  fully  justified, 
that  "  the  methods  of  research  in  medicine  at  the  present 
time  have  gained  greatly  in  exactness,  and  in  the  just  appre- 
ciation of  facts,  upon  those  of  any  previous  period."  This,  of 
itself,  is  a  grand  progress,  even  were  it  oidy  preparatory. 
But  this  Tightness  of  method,  and  definitenesS  of  system,  is 
full  of  actual,  practical  results — a  tree  full  of  fruit  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations.  Diagnosis  has  become  a  science  by 
itself,  and,  with  admirable  precision,  we  are  often  able  not 
only  to  give  name  to  disease,  but  to  specify  its  locality,  its 
extent,  its  stage — in  fact,  to  have  its  fall  descriptive  vividly 
before  the  mind  ;  and  this  is  what  we  want,  in  order  to  lay 
right  hold  of  it  for  treatment.  There  is  glory  and  progress 
in  the  discovery  of  a  little  star,  not  so  much  because  of  the 
momentary  result,  as  because  it  shows  accuracy  and  zeal  in 
investigation,  and  adds  to  the  real  material  of  a  science  ;  and 
so  each  step  in  diagnosis  is  a  discovery  in  the  range  of  our 
profession  which  lights  up  the  track  of  a  hopeful  destiny. 
But  not  in  accuracy  of  diagnosis  alone  do  we  note  advance. 
We  have  evolved  therefrom,  and  from  experience  added 
thereto,  actual  treatment  very  different  from  the  methods  of 
the  past.     We   study  more   accurately  the  relation  between 


president's  addeess.  13 

remedies  and  disease  in  its  particular  stages.  We  know  more 
of  the  action  of  remedies,  as  modified  by  circumstances.  We 
see  a  reason  why  the  medicine  given  in  the  second  stage  of 
pneumonia  is  not  to  be  depended  upon  when  grey  hepatiza- 
tion has  almost  suspended  vital  action. 

If  the  case  be  one  of  rheumatism,  or  pleuritic  effusion,  we 
can  measure  the  relation  of  our  medicine  to  the  appearance 
of  chlorides  in  the  urine,  or  if  the  kidney  is  involved,  tell 
with  no  small  degree  of  accuracy  whether  the  disease  is  to  be 
treated  as  one  functional  or  organic.  Even  in  cases  where, 
with  all  our  knowledge,  we  are  yet  too  often  unsuccessful,  we 
have  dispensed  with  a  great  deal  of  false  treatment,  and,  if 
we  do  not  cure,  we  at  least  understand  the  design  of  treat- 
ment, and  prolong  life,  and  deliver  the  patient  from  long 
courses  of  ill-advised  medicines.  The  action  of  remedies,  too, 
has  become  an  important  part  of  our  study.  We  have  more 
definite  medicines,  can  measure  their  effects  more  accurately, 
and  suit  them  more  judiciously  to  the  invasions  of  disease. 

If  one  doubts  the  progress  of  medicine  as  a  science,  let 
him  but  turn  to  the  standard  works  of  1800  and  those  of  1865. 
Then  the  whole  of  medical  science  could  be  kept  in  a  corner 
book-case,  and,  even  of  that,  a  larger  proportion  was  specu- 
lative than  now.  Instead  of  chemistry  you  had  alchemy,  melt- 
ing up  medleys  in  crucibles,  and  looking  in  the  dark  for  elixirs 
and  magical  stones  ;  materia  medica,  with  a  little  more  sense, 
searching  amid  the  luxuriance  of  vegetable  life,  and  yet,  but 
Cor  a  Cullen,  scarcely  a  science  at  all.  Uterine  diseases  were 
sadly  misunderstood.  Surgery,  though  bold,  had  not  even 
enunciated  much  of  what  is  now  regarded  as  a  part  of  its 
fundamental  principles  ;  and  practical  medicine  was  so  ex- 
clusively an  art  as  to  be  too  artistic,  and  so  little  of  a  science 
as  to  be  empirical.  As  for  special  anatomy,  it  was  a  very 
little  infant.  Physiology  had  but  an  indefinite  meaning,  and 
the  oldest  professor  of  Pathology  in  this  country,  who  had 
not  been  born  when  the  century  commenced,  has  told  me  that 
when  he  returned  from  Paris  and  commenced  to  lecture,  as 
he  might  be  permitted  to  do,  on  pathological  science,  many 


14  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JEESEY. 

looked  upon  him  as  a  medical  visionary,  and  the  first  chair 
had  to  be  made  for  him  with  misgiving. 

As  for  the  nervous  sj^stem,  as  little  was  known  of  it  as  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  before  Harvey  ;  and  the  whole 
of  hygienic  and  sanitary  science  had  scarcely  been  thought 
of  as  a  part  of  the  study  of  medicine. 

Too  often  empiricism  asserted  ro3'alty  in  dealing  with  dis- 
eases of  the  body,  and  the  straight-jacket  was  the  catholicon 
for  the  diseases  of  the  mind.  But  now,  turn  to  Virchow,  amid 
the  elements  of  molecular  action,  tracing  the  starting  points 
of  organic  life  ;  Clark  on  Clinical  Pathology  ;  Dalton  in  Phys- 
iology, and  the  fields  of  biological  research  ;  Barclay,  Turner, 
and  Da  Costa,  on  Diagnosis  ;  Hall,  S6quard,  and  Bernard,  on 
Nervous  Affections  ;  Watson  on  General  Practice  ;  to  Yel- 
peau,  Miller,  Sym,  Mott,  and  Gross,  on  Surgery ;  and  to  mul- 
titudes of  elaborate  monographs  on  the  specialties  of  our 
calling,  and  we  have  enough  to  satisfy  us  that  outspeaking 
facts  have  taken  the  place  of  speculation,  and  that  these  have 
been  so  studied  and  classified  as,  in  most  cases,  to  form  a  part 
of  diagnosis,  prognosis,  and  treatment.  Even  where  we  have 
not  reached  the  ultimatum  of  their  fTpplication,  we  know  that 
we  have  hold  of  the  right  handle,  just  as  much  as  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Davy,  when  he  had  discovered  two  or  three  of  the 
alkalies,  knew  that  he  was  on  the  road  to  scores  of  like  re- 
sults. 

It  would  be  pleasant,  did  time  permit,  to  draw  attention  to 
other  points  illustrating  the  power  of  medicine  as  a  science. 
There  is,  evidently,  about  it  an  attraction  which  awakens  the 
most  noble  enthusiasm  in  the  intellects  and  hearts  of  those 
who  pursue  it,  as  such.  To-night,  could  you  take  a  passing 
glance  into  the  ofiices  and  laboratories  of  our  profession 
throughout  the  world,  you  would  find  an  activity  and  enter- 
prise which,  of  themselves,  would  stamp  it  with  the  sign-tokens 
of  a  true  philosophy.  Anatomists,  amid  unpleasant  odors,  by  the 
midnight  lamp,  are  still  picking  away,  to  discover  the  minute 
relations  of  the  human  organism.  Microscopists  are  spending 
lone  hours  where  no  plaudits  of  stimulating  audiences  greet 


pkesident's  addeess.  15 

them,  revealing  in  the  human  world  wonders  as  marvelous  as 
those  which  the  telescope  notes  as  it  traverses  the  loftier  hut 
not  deeper  depths  of  another  science.  The  medical  chemist  is 
busy  prying  into  the  nature  of  poisons,  or  discovering  new- 
therapeutic  combinations  ;  and  so,  in  every  department,  there 
are  zealous  votaries,  pursuing  their  investigations  with  a  care. 
an  accuracy,  and  a  diligence,  which  would  be  inexplicable  if 
they  were  not  impelled  by  that  love  of  learning  which  meas- 
ures its  devotion,  not  by  the  acquirement  of  wealth,  or  the 
huzzas  of  fame,  but  which,  with  a  magical  charm,  binds  the 
scholar  to  his  pursuit,  and  fills  his  soul,  as  by  a  spell,  with  tlie 
inspiration  of  an  indescribable  enthusiasm. 

Five  or  six  years  since,  I  was  pleasantly  chatting  with  a 
distinguished  professor  of  physiology,  when  in  walked  a  jolly 
old  Irishman  with  a  train  of  a  dozen  dogs.  The  professor 
sprang  from  his  seat  as  if  in  an  ecstasy  of  delight,  and  as  he 
whistled  and  talked  to  them,  and  called  them  by  pet  names, 
and  heartily  commended  and  rewarded  his  successful  agent,  I 
could  not  but  look  upon  it  as  quite  a  scene,  and  it  was  the  first 
love  of  dogs  for  which  I  had  ever  had  much  respect.  He  was 
occupied  in  experiments  which  proved  most  important,  and 
had  been  scant  of  material,  and  as  I  beheld  his  sprightly  joy, 
his  dehghted  familiarity,  his  forgetfulness  of  every  thing  but 
the  objects  of  his  scientific  affection,  it  afforded  me  a  perspec- 
tive of  the  ecstasy  of  a  true  lover  of  science  such  as  I  shall  not 
forget.  There  was  pictured  right  out,  as  a  stereoscope  does 
it,  the  thrill  of  a  scholar's  zeal,  in  the  consciousness  that  he 
had  before  him,  the  demonstration  of  great  physiological  and 
functional  laws,  and  the  method  of  illustrating  how  vital 
action  is  performed.  And  this  is  but  a  homely  specimen  of 
the  true  enthusiasm  which  warms  many  a  hundred  of  those 
who  are  studying  the  philosophy  of  human  life  in  its  bearings 
upon  health  and  disease. 

Ours,  too,  is  a  God-adoring,  as  well  as  attractive  science. 
The  poor  materialist  may  stop  short  of  its  glory  and  grandeur, 
and  in  dealing  with  matter,  commit  the  same  error  that  the 
rationalist  does  in  dealing  with  mind  ;  but  the  true  logician 


16  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF   NEW- JERSEY. 

who  is  not  content  with  half  conclusions,  and  who  does  not 
attempt  to  weigh  with  the  balances  of  reason,  that  which 
reason  itself  teaches  to  be  beyond  its  boundaries,  sees  in 
humanity  and  its  construction  just  as  it  is,  the  highest  proof 
of  divinity — the  image  and  superscription  not  totally  ('!':"■  ced. 
He  at  times  feels  as  did  the  ancient  anatoraists,  v/'n.o  when 
they  first  sawed  into  the  bony  labyrinth  of  the  ear  and  beheld 
its  melodeon  of  bones,  its  winding  channels,  its  pearly  sea 
rippling  to  the  waves  of  sound,  dropped  as  by  instinct  their 
instruments,  and  together  joined  in  a  Te  Deuin  Laudamiis  to 
the  Maker. 

From  our  profession  as  a  science  i  pass  briefly  to  notice 
IT  as  a  business.  As  we  have  to  do  with  it  as  a  livelihood,  we 
are  under  the  necessity  of  considering  it  and  ourselves  in 
practical  relation  to  society.  As  well  as  a  science  and  an  art 
it  is  an  occupation  for  support — avocation — if  you  choose  a 
trade,  and  as  such  it  comes  in  contact  with  other  callings  and 
must  be  pursued  in  some  respects  on  a  common  basis.  As 
such,  we  claim  for  it  all  the  rights  which  belong  to  any  other 
occupation  in  which  learning  and  cutture  are  made  conducive 
to  support.  It  is  a.  candidate  for  success  as  a  living,  as  welL 
as  for  scientific  and  artistic  acceptance.  It  must  bear  its 
share  of  jostling  in  the  crowd  of  business  rivalry,  and  must 
expect  to  stand  in  part  upon  its  business  merits. 

We  think  there  are  two  classes  of  errorists  in  respect  to 
medicine  as  a  vocation.  The  one  "  Mens  conscia  scientia," 
hangs  out  its  sign,  and  that  is  all.  It  uses  no  effort  to  sustain 
itself  as  a  branch  of  human  industry.  It  throws  itself  back  on 
intrinsic  merit,,  with  more  of  dignity  than  of  perceived  power. 
It  resorts  to  none  of  the  usual  efforts  by  which  men  build  up 
a  business.  It  feels  that  it  deserves  success  and  then  leaves 
success  to  come  as  best  it  may  through  what  it  calls  natural 
channels.  It  is  ovcr-.'^ensitive,  would  not  be  suspected  of  having 
an  eye  to  business,  sneers  at  a  man  who  attends  to  a  specialty 
as  if  he  were  a  medical  sinner,  talks  much  of  punctilious  ethics, 
and  is  as  formal  as  a  Romish  archbishop  in  his  robes.     I  have 


president's  address.  17 

known  such  men,  appreciated  only  by  the  very  few  who  knoAv 
their  real  merit,  living  like  artists  and  poets  on  hope  instead 
of  assets,  worthy  of  admiration  because  men  of  honor  and 
attainment,  but  still  failing  in  the  profession  as  a  daily  support, 
in  a  way  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  f^iil,  in  order  to  preserve 
high  models  of  professional  self  respect  :\nd  ethical  propriety. 

Another  class  is  more  impressed  with  medicine  as  a  busi- 
ness, than  with  it  as  a  science  or  an  art.  They  practice  to 
make  money,  have  an  air  of  mystery  about  them  as  if  in  the 
secrets  of  patents,  see  no  harm  in  pushing  their  claims  upon 
the  public,  take  advantage  of  every  operation  as  a  means  of 
notoriety,  cajole  antiquated  nurses  that  they  may  be  recom- 
mended in  private  circles,  ride  v'ery  fast  when  not  in  a  hurry, 
have  a  pressure  of  business  Sunday  mornings  at  church  time, 
are  specialists  pre-eminently  in  self-esteem,  and  in  a  word, 
place  themselves  on  the  same  footing  with  Yankee  tradesmen 
and  dealers  in  small  wares. 

Now  there  is  a  proper  medium  between  these.  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  a  legitimate  business  tact  in  the  practice  of 
our  calling.  The  doctor  should  be  above  all  petty  arts,  but 
there  are  arts  which  are  not  petty.  His  culture,  antecedent 
.to  his  profession,  should  be  such  as  will  enable  him  to  express 
himself  with  correctness  and  ease,  whether  in  conversation  or 
with  the  pen,  as  w^ell  as  to  write  elegant  prescriptions.  As  a 
business  qualification,  and  as  a  debt  due  his  profession,  no  one 
more  needs  the  culture  and  the  heart  of  the  true  gentlemen. 
His  approach  to  the  invalid  requires  none  of  the  studied  eti- 
quette of  the  mechanical  formalist,  but  it  does  demand  the 
happy  ease  of  one  wdio  has  learned  how  to  adapt  himself  to 
the  phases  of  human  nature.  There  is  the  child  who  often 
needs  by  that  true  art,  which  has  true  feeling  as  its  basis,  to 
be  brought  into  confidence,  the  modest  sex  who  have  a  kind 
of  felt  repugnance  to  our  art  which  deserves  our  respect,  and 
which  if  properly  appreciated  grows  into  reliant  trust,  the 
man  of  business,  anxious,  restless,  and  perhaps  unreasonable 
in  his  sickness,  and  all  need  to  be  dealt  with,  not  only  with 
medical  skill,  but  with   that  discernment  of  character  which 


18  '      MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JERSEY. 

also  becomes  an  element  in  treatment.  There  is  not  a  c.illing 
in  life,  even  including  the  other  learned  professions  of  which 
the  masses  of  men  and  those  well  educated  in  other  respects 
are  so  illy  able  to  judge  correctly.  They  can  not  measure  the 
doctor  by  the  same  standard  they  do  the  minister  or  the  law- 
yer, who  deal  with  subjects  of  which  the  hearers  know  some- 
thing, and  hence,  popular  judgment  is  more  often  erroneous 
in  physic  than  in  anything  else.  We  come  in  contact  largely 
with  the  prejudices  and  impulses  of  men,  at  a  time  when  by 
their  anxieties  they  are  easily  moved  to  try  various  remedies 
in  the  hope  of  more  speedy  recovery,  and  we  need,  not  so 
much  from  self-respect,  as  out  of  respect  to  our  profession,  to 
give  it  all  the  advantages  of  a  favorable  introduction.  The 
polite  bow,  the  quiet  manner,  the  word  of  firm  but  tender 
kindness,  the  neat  apparel  and  the  general  demeanor  of  cheer- 
ful thoughtfulness  for  the  welfare  of  the  patient,  are  never 
more  in  place  than  when  illustrated  by  the  medical  attendant. 
True  and  manly  adaptation  of  ourselves  to  varying  circum- 
stances, is  a  fit  accompaniment  of  an  adaptation  of  our  reme- 
dies to  the  disease  on  hand,  and  the  study  of  character  belongs 
to  the  business  of  our  art.  * 

In  the  preparation  of  our  medicines,  too,  we  may  use 
another  kind  of  justifiable  tact.  We  should  study  to  make 
them  taste  better,  and  take  much  more  pains  to  please  the 
palate  when  we  can  do  it  without  sacrificing  strength  or  value. 
The  people  have  a  just  claim  upon  elegant  pharmacy.  There 
is  now  little  need  of  nauseous  potions,  and  as  the  law  of 
association  is  a  law  of  life,  strong  in  the  cradle  and  growing 
to  the  grave,  we  should  conform  to  the  demand  it  makes  upon 
us.  There  is  np  necessity  that  even  the  country  doctor  should 
be,  to  the  child  or  the  adult,  the  synonym  of  assofoetida  and 
castor  oil,  and  if  you  have  ever  been  long  sick  yourself,  you 
will  appreciate  that  kind  of  natural  inclination  there  is  toward 
the  attendant  whose  drugs  are  coated  with  sugar,  fragrant 
with  essential  oils,  or  flavored  with  odorous  extracts.  We 
have  no  right,  injustice  to  our  calling,  to  allow  paltry  quacks, 
wth  sweetened  bubbles,  in  their  granular  degeneration,  to  steal 
away  from  truth,  if  possible,  our  verv  elect. 


president's  address.  19 

There  is  much  discussion  uow-a-days  as  to  specialties  in 
medicine,  and  as  to  how  far  the  regular  practitioner  may,  in  his 
business,  give  prominence  thereto.     We  believe  the  tendency 
of  some  medical  organizations  is,  to  be  too  strenuous  in  refer- 
ence to  them.      I  for  one  see  in  them  the  highest  hope  for 
Progress.     The  scope  of  our  science  has  become  in  the  last 
half  century  enormously  enlarged.     It  is  now  rather  a  family 
of  sciences — a  Banyan-tree  with  its  grand  old  centre  still  in- 
tact, but  the  branches  have  arched  over  and  taken  root,  and 
we  have  a  noble  group  ;  an  academy  amid  whose  groves,  as 
did  Plato  and  his  followers,  we  may  sit  and  sup  each  our  relish 
of  the  fulness  of  Philosophy.    One  man  can  not  now  expect  in 
perfection  to  encircle  this  forest-city,  and  our  most  frequent 
failures  are  in  the  attempt.     It  is  only  by  joining  hands  that 
we  can  complete  the  round.     Let  each  one  feel  himself  as  of 
the   family  ;    draw   nourishment    from    the    same    abundant 
source  ;  receive  a  full   curriculum  in  every  department  ;  and 
then  choose  his  favorite  branch.     To  be  great  aurists,  occu- 
lists,   stethoscopists,  microscopists,   dermatologists,    toxicolo- 
gists,  orthopoedists,  obstetricians,  physiological,  pathological, 
and  chemical  classifiers  of  all  acute  and  chronic  conditions, 
surgeons,   apothecaries   and  physicians,  is  asking  too  much 
for  three  score  years  and  ten.     There  must  be  division   of 
labor  in    order   to  success  ;    and  the  time  is   coming   when 
the  general  practitioner  will  dare  to  claim  that  he  knows  only 
what  he  does  know,  and  will  feel  it  to  be  a  not  unworthy  part 
of  his  professional  duty  to  serve  his  patient  in  divers  other 
cases,  by  directing  him  to  those  skilled  in  a  specific  branch. 
The  old  distinctions,  so  well  recognized  in  the  British  Empire, 
will  ere  long  be  revived  here  under  a  different  kind  of  classi- 
fication ;  and  medicine  pride  itself,  not  as  complete  in  each 
practitioner,  but  complete  because  all  its  members  will  togeth- 
er make  up  a  harmonious  whole  ;  and  the  man  of  real  merit 
and  science,  who  puts  up  a  modest  sign  of  his  specialty,  will 
be  criticized  no  more  than  he  who  by  his  M.  D.  proclaims  him- 
self  a  proficient  in  all.     Thus  will  we  find  exaltation  accruing 
to  our  profession,  and  be  less  in  danger  than  now  from  imag- 


20  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF   NEW- JERSEY. 

inary  and  arbitrary  distinctions.  We  shall  then  not  fail  to 
distinguish  between  those  who,  in  a  proper  way,  lay  claim  to 
superior  skill,  and  those  who,  with  gilded  baubles,  long  adver- 
tisements, and  vaunted  cures,  seek  only  cash  and  notoriety 
combined. 

Let  the  practice  of  physic,  as  a  business,  have  thus  its  defi- 
nite plans  and  methoLls  ;  let  love  of  it  as  a  science  and  an 
art,  and  energy,  high-toned  devotion  to  it  as  a  daily  vocation, 
be  the  motive  power,  and  it  will  not  fail  to  place  itself  in  a 
still  more  commanding  position,  and  reap  brighter  and  more 
golden  rewards. 

I  HASTEN  TO  SPEAK  LASTLY  OF  MEDICINE  AS  AN  ART. 

Old  Playfair  was  right  when  he  said,  "  a  principle  in  science 
is  a  rule  in  art."  It  is  difficult  to  dissociate  art  from  its  sci- 
ence, or  science  from  its  art.  Wherever  you  find  a  real  sci- 
ence, there  you  are  sure,  ere  long,  to  discover  a  corresponding 
art.  There  is  not  always  the  same  order  of  sequence,  for 
sometimes  the  science  gives  rise  to  the  art,  and  then  again  the 
art  may  introduce  the  science  ;  and  oftener  still,  both  are  uni- 
ting their  labors  to  luminate  and  Tidvance  each  other.  And 
so  it  is  in  our  calling.  The  science  and  the  art  of  medicine 
are  indissolubly  connected.  They  travel  on  in  the  same  di- 
rection, not  always  just  alongside,  but  still  ever  in  intimate 
correspondence,  aiding,  abetting,  and  elucidating  each  other. 
A  true  art  ahuays  seeks  to  illustrate  and  apply  science,  and  to 
test  theory  hy  idility.  The  profession  of  medicine  responds 
to  these  requisitions.  It  is  so  practical  that  it  is  called  the 
practice  of  medicine.  Its  chief  effort  is  to  use  its  science  and 
its  art,  both  in  direct  application  to  the  wants  of  man.  With 
both,  it  aims  at  practical  purposes,  and  has  definite  plans  by 
which  it  operates  for  the  benefit  of  humanity.  It  is  eminent- 
ly utilitarian  in  all  its  ends  and  aims.  All  art  is  so.  Even 
the  fine  arts,  with  the  exquisite  pleasure  they  yield  to  the 
senses,  and  the  culture  they  give  to  the  developing  taste,  are 
humanitarian  and  utilitarian  ;  but  still  more,  our  art,  as  it 
seeks  to  give  that  sweet  relief  which  follows  the  lull  from  ex- 


president's  address.  21 

cniciiiting  pain,  and  to  delay  the  pangs  witli  which  body  and 
soul  take  parting,  is  aiming  at  one  of  the  most  nseful  offices 
which  it  can  propose,  as  the  goal  of  its  ambition. 

Our  art,  as  such,  has  a  threefold  relation  to  humanity.  Its 
designs  are,  1st,  TO  CURE  disease;  2nd,  to  prevent  it;  and  3rd, 
To  RELIEVE  PAIN.  It  recognizes  these  as  three  separate  depart- 
ments for  its  effort.  It  is  not  only  the  healing  nrt,  but  the 
preventive  and  the  soothing  art.  The  true  physician  feels 
that  he  has  in  charge  the  physical  welfare  of  his  species,  and 
nothing  that  relates  to  hygienic  or  preventive  science  is  for- 
eign to  his  occupation.  In  fact,  as  an  art,  independent  of  its 
relations  to  business,  it  has  no  higher  triumphs  than  in  seek- 
ing out  and  abating  the  sources  of  human  misery.  As  it  sur- 
veys the  broad  expanse  of  disease,  it  perceives  how  much  of 
it  is  a  direct  result  of  a  disobedience  of  natural  laws,  by  the 
individual  himself,  or  by  those  who  have  in  charge  the  sanitary 
or  municipal  regulation  of  society,  and  the  zeal  of  the  true 
philanthropist,  combines  with  that  of  the  earnest  physician, 
to  strike  at  the  roots  and  cut  off  the  sources  of  human  malady. 
Thus,  in  reference  to  the  laws  of  health  and  diet,  in  the  study 
of  meteorological  changes,  and  in  various  other  matters  bear- 
ing upon  the  physical  status  of  the  nation,  we  feel  no  small 
degree  of  interest  and  accountability,  and  realize  that  society 
and  humanity  have  claims  which  can  not  be  measured  or  dis- 
charged by  pecuniary  considerations,  but  which,  like  many 
an  out-gushing  effort  of  earnest  devotion  to  one's  pursuit,  are 
j-endered,  because  of  a  living  interest,  in  all  that  relates  to  the 
material  elevation  and  vitalization  of  the  race. 

But  when  our  science  can  neither  heal  disease  or  prevent  it, 
it  still  has  a  noble  office  to  perform.  When  the  body  is  writh- 
ing with  the  contortions  of  pain,  and  every  nerve  twinges 
with  the  sensitiveness  of  misery,  there  is  something  wortliy  of 
the  name  of  art  and  science,  too,  in  the  man  who  can  speak 
peace  to  the  excruciating  pang,  and  make  quiet  repose  take 
the  place  of  agonizing  wailing.  Yet  this  is  not  all.  We 
know  that  we  not  only  avert  and  relieve  disease,  but  that  we 
often  cure  it.     We  step  in  between  life  and  death,  and  with 


22  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OP   NEW-JEKSEY. 

those  remedies  which  the  God  of  nature  has  placed  at  our 
command,  turn  aside  the  reaper,  deatb,  and  restore  health 
and  strength  to  tlie  prostrate  form.  However  perplexing 
may  be  the  indications  in  some  cases,  every  ph3'sician  can  re- 
call manifold  instances  in  which  he  knows,  as  far  as  human  cer- 
tain t}^  can  go,  that  he  has  averted  the  stroke  of  the  destroy- 
ing angel,  removed  the  barbed  arrow  rankling  amid  the  life- 
blood,  and  can  say  of  this  or  of  that  one  :  "  I  saved  his  life." 
Let  others  pursue  the  paths  of  fortune,  and  build  their  pal- 
aces of  wealth,  or  run  the  race  of  fame,  and  listen  to  the  plau- 
dits of  the  forum  and  the  stage  ;  let  the  poet  and  the  painter 
revel  in  the  delights  of  their  ^vork  and  picture  colorings,  but 
write  my  name  as  one  who  strove  to  quell  the  fountains  of  hu- 
man misery,  to  delay  the  progress  of  fatal  disease,  and  ward 
off  the  strokes  of  earnest  death — as  one  who  learned  to  ease 
the  pain  and  lull  the  anguish  of  bitter  trial — who  loved  to 
work,  and  watch,  and  w\iit  by  the  bed-side  of  suffering  human- 
ity, in  order  that  mortal  grief  might  be  assuaged,  and  that  mor- 
tal maladies  might  yield  to  the  remedial  agencies  of  our  art. 

I  now  further  claim  that,  in  all  these  respects,  as  a  prevent- 
ive, a  relieving,  and  a  curative  art^  medicine  is  progressive 
and  successful.  As  we  viewed  its  progress  as  a  science,  so 
let  us  view  its  progress  as  an  art.  Here  again  we  do  not 
need  to  e'xtend  our  vision  over  the  remote  past,  but  can  gath- 
er in  abundant  evidence  from  the  scope  furnished  by  the  pre- 
sent century.  At  its  commencement  comparativly  little  was 
known  of  the  relation  of  causes  to  disease.  Certain  facts,  such 
as  the  spread  of  epidemics  in  specific  latitudes,  and  the  cessa- 
tion of  diseases  by  special  influences,  as  when  the  burning  of 
400  acres  of  tenement  houses  in  London  stopped  the  Plague, 
had;  indeed,  long  drawn  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  was 
some  connexion  between  atmospheric  and  constitutional  chan- 
ges, between  locality  and  disease,  but  no  definite  method  of 
investigation  or  law  of  action  had  been  deduced  therefrom. 
But  now  hygienic  and  sanitary  laws  have  their  definite  appli- 
cations. Though  we  can  not  trace  the  origin  of  such  subtle 
causes  as  eliminate  the  poison  of  cholera,  or  the  contagion  of 


« 

president's  address.  23 

certain  fevers,  yet,  even  in  such  cases,  we  know  much  that  can 
be  turned  to  practical  account.  We  recognize  enough  of  the 
antecedents  of  cholera,  of  the  definite  connexions  between  re- 
mittent fevers  and  miasm,  and  between  human  filth  and  the 
prevalence  of  typhus,  to  enable  us  to  do  much  in  diminishing 
their  frequency,  or  modifying  their  severity.  We  know  that 
certain  measures  as  to  cleanliness  will  secure  immunit}''  from 
many  diseases,  while  the  influence  of  proper  drainage,  good 
air,  good  diet,  and  contentment  of  mind,  are  appreciated  and 
applied  by  the  physician  in  many  practical  ways. 

Besides,  by  the  process  of  Vaccination  alone,  thousands  upon 
thousands  have  been  rescued,  not  only  from  death,  but  from 
disfiguring  disease,  and  the  greatness  of  the  immunity  and 
blessing,  can  scarce  be  appreciated,  now  that  variola  has 
ceased  to  be  a  sweeping,  unchecked  scourge.  The  value  of 
preventive  medicine  has  been  so  frequently  illustrated  in  the 
last  few  years,  that  it  no  longer  rests  upon  any  doubtful  evi- 
dence. Cities  in  which  all  curative  methods  have  failed  to 
arrest  prevalent  disease,  have  been  delivered  tlierefrom  by 
removal  of  accumulated  refuse,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  were  those  laws  of  hygiene,  which  are  no  longer  a  matter 
of  doubt,  applied  with  earnestness  and  efficiency,  the  aggre- 
gate of  sickness,  in  city  and  country,  would  be  reduced  not  less 
than  forty  per  cent.,  and  that  of  premature  death  in  propor- 
tion. Even  in  an  economical  point  of  view,  such  an  applica- 
tion of  these  laws  is  desirable,  inasmuch  as  disease  and  mortal- 
ity deduct  from  the  industrial  wealth  of  a  nation,  but  in  the 
higher  a-nd  more  important  aspect  of  blessing  to  humanity, 
there  is  the  highest  appeal  to  our  professional  and  personal 
effort.  The  cities  of  Boston  and  Providence  have  well  illus- 
trated the  value  of  such  efforts  in  their  permanent  methods, 
and  even  New  York  and  Washington  been  greatl}^  bene- 
fitted by  occasional  awakening,  but  have  been  oftener  stand- 
ing proofs  of  neglect. 

New  York  City,  with  its  5000  or  6000  cases  of  small  pox  the 
last  year,  is  good  evidence  on  the  point ;  and  the  proportionate 
surplus  of  deaths  by  6000  or  7000  is  not  to  be  accounted  for  by 
latitude  or  locality. 


24  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OF    NEW-JERSEY. 

As  to  miasmatic  diseases,  their  laws  are  so  well  understood 
that  correct  views,  as  to  preventive  measures,  have  often  led 
to  the  relief  of  prevailing  disease,  by  resort  to  practical  meth- 
ods of  drainage,  and  the  removal  of  obstructions  to  the  flow  of 
natural  channels.  Thus,  by  this  one  department  of  hygiene 
and  sanitary  art  alone,  thousands  have  been  rescued  from  un- 
timely graves,  and  tens  of  thousands  from  the  long-continued 
inflictions  of  disease,  and  yet  there  is  no  field  in  which  more 
remains  to  be  done.  Strange  to  say,  here,  medicine  as  a  sci- 
ence is  yet  far  ahead  of  medicine  as  an  art  ;  in  other  words 
we  know  far  more  of  the  general  and  specific  laws  of  health, 
as  applicable  to  individuals  and  to  crowded  communities, 
than  has  as  j^et  found  its  way  into  practice  or  municipal  regu- 
lations. 

Not  less,  as  a  relieving  art,  has  medicine  recorded  grand 
progress  in  the  present  century.  The  discovery  of  such  an 
anesthetic  as  chloroform,  or  as  ether,  is  of  itself  enough  to 
crown  our  profession  with  honor  for  an  age.  Human  pain  and 
agony  are  sad  and  terrible  things,  and  he  is  no  small  benefac- 
tor to  his  race  who  discovers,  or  whose  business  it  is  to  apply 
principles  and  methods  which  lead  to  its  relief.  If  we  con- 
trast the  past  age  of  medicine  in  this  respect  with  the  present, 
we  have  reason  for  joyful  congratulation.  To  perform  opera- 
tions without  causing  a  struggle  or  a  moan,  which  once  re- 
quired the  lashing-table  and  the  strength  of  human  force  ;  to 
substitute  the  sweet,  calm  smile  of  quiet  sleep,  for  the  scream 
of  distress,  when  the  scalpel  is  penetrating  nerves  ;  and  yet 
meanwhile,  to  accomplish  the  most  skilful  operations  of  sur- 
gery— this  is  a  glory  and  a  triumph  of  which  any  science  or 
any  art  may  well  be  proud.  Could  all  the  relief  which  has 
been  afforded  to  liuman  pain  by  chloroform  alone  be  express- 
ed by  measure  of  quantity,  or  test  of  quality,  or  power  of  hu- 
man language,  you  would  have  an  aggregate  of  capacity,  of 
choice  selection,  of  thrilling  delineation  such  as  any  mere  con- 
ception fails  to  impress.  Could  a  painter  in  one  glowing  picture 
present  you  the  sum  of  relief  and  of  comfort  that  thus  our  pro- 
fession has  bestowed,  it  would  be  worthy  to  take  its  place  as  an 


president's  address.  25 

image  of  contentment  beside  the  sleeping  Madonna  ;  and  could 
another  portray  the  condensed  misery  and  pain  it  has  averted, 
it  would  be  a  portraiture  with  La  Miserable  as  its  name,  and 
a  part  of  Cornelius'  "Last  Judgment"  as  its  model. 

Nor  are  we  to  lose  sight  of  manifold  other  methods  of  relief. 
The  whole  class  of  narcotics  and  sedatives  have,  with  all 
their  power,  as  a  prominent  design,  the  relief  as  well  as  the 
cure  of  disease, ,  and  how  e-ffectually  "and  satisfactorily  they 
accomplish  it,  patient  and  physician  are  often  the  happy  wit- 
nesses. Improvements  in  ease  and  simplicity  of  treatment 
have  added,  in  the  last  few  years,  much  to  the  comfort  of  the 
sick  or  injured ;  and  the  whole  practice  of  medicine  is  now 
pursued  with  less  of  inconvenience  to  the  patient,  and  of  less 
expenditure  of  that  vital  power  which  constitutes  pain,  than 
ever  before.  Thus,  the  art  of  relief  becomes  next  in  precious- 
ness  to  that  of  cure  ;  and  unquestioned,  may  take  a  high  posi- 
tion among  well  directed  and  philanthropic  efforts. 

No  less  progressive  is  medicine  as  a  curative  art.  Where 
once  it  shook  the  head  of  doubt,  and  trembled  with  the  pre- 
sentiment of  failure,  it  now  advances  with  the  firm  tread  of  a 
reasonable  certainty.  While  by  reliable  statistics  it  is  able  to 
show  an  appreciable,  numerical  gain  in  the  management  of  old 
ailments,  it  cures  others  which  were  once  consigned  to  the  sad 
Golgotha  of  hopelessness,  and  grapples  with  disease,  not  to  lull 
into  unconscious  security,  but  to  renovate  with  the.  blushing- 
ruddiness  of  restored  health.  It  attempts  cure  by  methods 
once  unknown,  and  sustains  their  value  by  accurate  experience. 
In  every  department,  it  reaches  out  with  energetic  hand,  for 
all  that  reason  can  suggest  and  example  prove,  and  hesitates 
not  to  subsidize  to  its  service  every  thing  likely  to  overcome 
or  ameliorate  injury  or  disease.  Once  dealing  with  disease  by 
name,  it  now  successfully  defines  its  stages,  and  assigns  its 
remedies,  with  no  small  degree  of  accuracy.  Operations  once 
considered  hazardous,  or  not  even  proposed,  have  become  an 
actual  part  of  our  science.  Articles  of  Materia  Medica,  which 
were  unknown,  or  so  crude  as  not  to  be  available,  have  had 
their  virtues  so  extracted  as  to  be  manageable,  and  have  taken 


26'  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JEESEY. 

their  place  as  valuable  remedies  ;  and  in  the  department  of 
Uterine  disease  an  almost  radical  change  has  been  inaugurated. 
The  physician  of  the  present  day  can  approach  almost  any 
disease  with  a  consciousness  of  valuable  facts  in  possession 
bearing  upon  it,  and  in  a  large  number  of  cases  these  facts  are 
such  as  advance  our  art  as  much  as  they  elevate  our  science. 
Notwithstanding  the  inroads  of  luxury,  and  the  deterioration 
of  physical  stamina,  which  too  much  marks  our  age,  careful 
statistics  show  that  where  the  principles  of  our  art  are  faith- 
fully applied,  there  has  been  a  uniform  and  appreciable  de- 
crease. Under  improved  hygienic  regulations,  Paris,  since 
1830,  has  diminished  its  percentage  of  death  from  one  in  thir- 
ty-two to  one  in  thirty-seven.  In  London  a  corrresponding 
improvement  has  taken  place,  until  the  death  rate  is  reduced 
to  one  in  forty. 

"We  next  pass  in  conclusion  to  inquire  whether  medicine  as 
an  art  is  successful.  This  is  in  fact  involved  in  the  idea  of 
progressiveness,  for  that  scarcely  deserves  the  name  of  a  pro- 
gressive art,  which  does  not  eventuate  in  advantage  and  suc- 
cess. But  it  may  be  well  briefly  to  inquire  to  what  extent  the 
art  of  prevention,  relief,  and  cure,  as  represented  in  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine,  is  successful. 

A  general  proof  of  the  success  of  an  art  is^  to  be  derived 
from  its  antiquity,  and  from  the  estimation  in  which  it  is  held 
by  all  civilized  communities.  While  the  deference  and  pat- 
ronage which  is  often  extended  to  empiricism  may  sometimes 
lead  to  disgust  and  doubt ;  yet  this  can  only  result  from  a  cir- 
cumscribed view  of  the  area  of  our  profession.  While,  ever 
and  anon,  some  new  system  is  vaunted  and  popular,  yet  the 
great  fact  stands  out  from  the  rubbish  of  all  these  false  meth- 
ods, that  the  regular  profession  still  holds  its  wa}^  amid  them 
all,  and  not  a  single  system,  which  has  stood  the  test  of  time, 
pretends  to  vie  with  it.  The  alchymists  and  vegetarians,  the 
Thompsonians  and  hydropaths,  the  chrono-thermalists  and 
eclectics,  and  many  other  upstarts  whose  very  names  are 
now  forgotten,  have  passed  away,  as  Avill  Homeopathy  in 
its  turn,  with  the  age  begetting  them,  and  the  progress  of  the 


president's  address.  27 

world  writes  Nihil,  as  their  epitaph.  This  alone  shows  that 
in  the  general  estimate  of  mankind  it  is  snccessful  ;  for  a  pro- 
fession in  which  are  involved  the  actual  life  and  health  of  the 
people,  would  not  have  had  such  perpetuity  conferred  upon  it, 
in  compare  with  other  systems,  unless  in  the  main  it  had  com- 
manded the  intelligent  assent  and  approval  of  the  world.  This 
alone  confers  upon  it,  so  far  as  the  "  vox  populi"  is  concerned, 
the  crown  of  successful  competition,  as  having,  in  the  long  run? 
fairly  and  fully  distanced  its  more  pretentious  rivals.  Mankind 
have  thus  lionored  it,  because  in  general  they  have  recognized 
it  as  the  most  successful  dispenser  of  the  preservatives  of  life, 
and  the  restoratives  of  health  ;  and  that  old  English  duke  is 
yet  worthy  of  admiration,  who,  in  a  time  when  Popery  and 
Quackery  were  rampant  in  England,  was  taken  sick,  with  in- 
curable ailment,  and  when  informed  by  his  medical  attendant 
that  his  disease  was  mortal,  replied,  "I  am  content,  inasmuch 
as  I  am  permitted  to  die  in  the  faith  of  the  regular  church,  and 
under  the  care  of  a  regular  physician." 

But  we  need  not  rely  for  proof  of  success  upon  the  general 
assent  of  mankind.  Our  advance  is  more  demonstrative  than 
this.  When  a  man  is  writhing  with  the  contortions  of  pain, 
as  the  result  of  intestinal  irritation,  and  successive  narcotics 
quell  the  griping  monster,  and  relax  the  woful  spasm,  that 
relief  which  is  as  responsive  to  the  remed}''  as  ever  effect  is  to 
cause,  is  quite  convincing  enough  to  the  patient  and  to  us. 
When  the  injured  artery  is  pouring  out  the  life  blood,  with 
the  pale  death  damp  settling  on  the  countenance,  and  the  well 
applied  ligature  is  the  thread  which  interweaves  with  the 
parting  thread  of  life,  and  gives  it  strength  for  other  years, 
the  patient  does  not  fail  to  see  the  connexion  between  his 
surgeon  and  his  rescue.  These  are  but  specimens  of  number- 
less cases  of  direct  demonstrative  success,  and  besides  these, 
there  are  thousands  of  others,  which,  although  not  so  accurate- 
ly sequent,  yet  can  appeal  for  proof  of  success  to  the  same 
kind  of  evidence  deemed  satisf;ictory  in  other  vocations. 

In  dangerous  diseases  it  is  always  safe  to  refer  recovery  to 
treatment,  where  the  s3^mptoms  have  been  such  as  are  gene- 


28  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JERSEY, 

rally  fatal,  and  where  the  treatment  adopted  has  been  such 
as  experience  and  statistics  prove  to  have  diminished  the 
fatality  of  the  particular  disease.  In  respect  to  pleurisy, 
pneumonia,  puerperal  fever,  typhus  and  many  other  diseases, 
we  may  rest  our  proof  upon  just  this  kind  of  evidence.  In 
phthisis  pulmonalis,  although  cure  is  seldom  effected,  we  have 
many  and  indisputable  principles  of  treatment,  and  that  we 
are  able  to  elevate  the  system  above  the  consumptive  mark, 
and  to  prolong  life,  we  have  all  that  kind  of  assurance  which 
is  furnished  by  increasing  strength,  diminished  cough, 
higher  vitality,  and  cessation  of  serious  symptoms.  In  other 
cases,  such  as  organic  heart  disease,  where  we  can  not  change 
structure,  yet  we  are  able  to  make  accurate  diagnosis,  and  by 
warning  the  patient  against  certain  contingencies,  lead  him  to 
prolong  his  life,  and  thus  secure  a  partial  success.  I  knew  a 
man  with  pulmonary  aneurism,  who,  after  treatment  for  con- 
sumption and  divers  other  ailments,  had  his  obscure  case 
recognized  by  a  learned  auscultator,  and  not  only  was  relieved 
from  all  doubt  and  long  courses  of  ill  advised  medicines,  but 
led  to  such  a  judicious  course  of  regimen  and  life,  as  served 
to  add  much  to  his  comfort  and  his  dij^^s,  and  even  this  cannot 
be  called  fiilure.  A  profession  which  had  no  higher  claim 
than  that  of  thus  securing  partial  deliverance,  would  not  be 
cast  out  as  useless,  and  much  less,  one  which  has  in  it  so  much 
of  real  success  that  we  need  scarcely  allude  to  such  evidences. 

There  is  another  kind  of  success,  not  attracting  the  public 
eye,  which  our  profession  has  a  full  right  to  claim. 

By  the  writings  and  opinions  of  medical  men,  a  very  great  in- 
fluence is  exercised  in  behalf  of  public  and  private  medical 
charities,  which,  while  adopted  in  most  civilized  countries,  is 
seldom  traced  to  its  primal  source.  As  many  a  river  is  bounding 
mth  life,  and  bearing  over  its  waters  the  commonwealth  of  the 
people,  whose  fountain-head  away  off  in  the  quiet  top  of  some 
rocky  mountain  has  never  mirrored  a  single  face  of  those  who 
travel  on  it ;  so  these  sources  of  correct  physical  law  are  un- 
seen and  unknown  while  the  world  is  gathering  in  the  rich 
reward  of  their  labors.     Thus,  a  large  part  of  what  has  become 


president's  address,  29 

the  common  stock  of  enlightened  humanity,  as  to  the  laws  of 
life  and  health,  and  pubHc  provision  therefore  is  due  to  the 
investigation  and  experience  of  our  profession.  Those  noble 
charities  which  grace  the  world,  with  the  realizations  of  a  prac- 
tical philanthropy,  as  exhibited  in  infirmaries  and  dispensaries, 
for  the  poor  and  needy  ;  in  hospitals  for  the  sick,  the  wounded, 
and  the  sore  ;  in  asylums  for  the  deaf  and  the  blind,  the 
outcast  and  the  destitute,  are  in  no  small  degree  the  direct 
outgrowth  of  our  profession.  If  religion  is  the  foster-mother, 
our  scientific  art  is  the  foster-father.  All  over  the  broad  area  of 
Christian  civilization,  every  asylum  for  the  blind  is  a  monument 
to  the  energy  of  Dr.  Howe,  who  not  only  looked  to  their  tempo- 
ral wants,  but  invented  the  raised  letters,  which  introduce  them 
to  the  Bible  and  the  literature  of  the  world.  The  hospital 
upon  the  Alps,  on  the  grand  landscape  slope  of  the  Abend- 
berg,  which  has  demonstrated  how  much  can  be  done  to  ameli- 
orate the  condition  of  the  cretin  and  the  idiot,  is  the  life-work 
of  Dr.  Guggenbuhl  ;  the  idea  of  rescuing  the  drunkard  from 
the  wierd  power  of  the  spell  enchantress'  habit,  by  medical 
treatment,  has  been  happily  practicalized  under  the  fostering 
care  of  Dr.  Turner  ;  and  never  let  it  be  forgotten,  that  the  noble 
charity  at  Trenton,  which  confers  upon  our  state  all  the  honor 
due  to  a  generous*  provision  for  the  most  unfortunate  of  her 
children,  had  its  origin  in  the  action  of  this  society,  and  its  in- 
ceptions in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  some  who  to-night  honor 
us  with  their  presence.  In  no  profession  is  so  much  of  service 
thus  rendered  without  pecuniary  reward  ;  and  even  the  call  of 
public  institutions  for  the  relief  of  their  suffering  inmates,  is  re- 
sponded to  by  the  very  ablest  men  of  the  profession,  without  per- 
sonal recompense.  I  speak  after  investigation  of  the  subject,  when 
I  say,  that  in  all  countries  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  public 
provisions  made  for  mental  and  physical  disability,  its  prevention 
and  its  cure,  is  traceable  to  our  profession,  and  we  need  only  to 
read  their  careful  reports,  to  satisfy  us  how  much  of  success 
has  attended  our  efforts.  Civil  and  political  power  have  neces- 
sarily been  called  upon  to  consummate  endowments,  and  to 
secure  munificent  pecuniary  patronage,  and  thus  have  gene- 


30  MEDICAL   SOCIETY   OF   NEW-JERSEY. 

rally  been  regarded  as  the  authors.  But,  behind  all  this,  you 
will  find  the  earnest  labors  of  medical  men,  by  essays,  by 
appeals,  by  petitions,  by  expenditures  of  time  and  skill  and 
money,  touching  the  main  springs  which  have  started  these  me- 
chanisms of  philanthropy  into  motion.  Their  success  is  the 
success  of  our  profession  ;  and  though  the  world  may  not  regis- 
ter our  names  upon  the  tablet  of  fame's  temple,  in  the  eternity 
of  knowledge,  in  the  hidden  registry  of  human  benefaction,  "  Lo, 
Ben  Adhem's  name  leads  all  the  rest." 

Another  proof  of  success  is  to  be  found  in  the  spirit  and  in 
the  result  with  which  we  grapple  new  diseases.  If  diptheria, 
or  spotted  fever,  or  malignant  pustule  or  other  sudden  epidemic 
invades  a  locality,  how  quickly  medical  men  afe  on  the  alert  to 
trace  its  history  and  to  stay  its  deadly  tramp  ;  and  even  in 
such  a  class  of  cases,  we  are  conscious  of  increasing  success. 
Although  we  may  not  fully  eliminate  the  poison,  or  eradicate 
the  disease,  w^e  can  and  do  meet  it  with  the  powerful  antago- 
nism of  an  earnest  and  a  practical  art,  and  generally  have  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  the  severity  decrease  ai  we  the  more 
thoroughly  study  and  treat  it. 

Besides  all  this,  there  are  numbers  ^f  diseases  now  success- 
fully treated  which  once  bade  defiance  to  all  the  investigations 
of  our  science,  and  the  experience  of  our  art.  There  are  dis- 
eases of  the  eye,  such  as  Iritis,  which  once  consigned  nine-tenths 
of  those  attacked  to  hopeless  blindness,  when  now  such  a  result 
is  only  the  sparse  exception.  There  are  affections  of  the  brain, 
such  as  the  Hydrocephaloid  disease,  which  a  careful  diagnosis, 
has  so  separated  from  acute  dropsy  as  to  save  many  a  child. 
Diseases  of  the  heart,  the  lungs,  and  the  alimentary  apparatus 
are  much  more  definitely  understood,  and  we  know,  from 
a  comparison  of  aggregated  results,  that  we  meet  them  better 
than  did  our  fathers,  and  almost  every  year  improve  upon  our- 
selves. 

In  Uterine  affections,  the  last  twenty-five  years  have  wit- 
nessed great  modifications  of  treatment,  and  the  operation  for- 
vesico-vaginal  fistula  has  been  but  the  prelude  to  local  treat- 
ment of  other  sexual  ailments,  which  has  lifted  many  a  sigh 


president's  address.  31 

from  off  the  sorrows  of  womanhood  and  returned  many  a  chron- 
ic invalid  to  the  useful  happiness  of  restored  health.  A  new 
era  has  dawned  upon  this  department ;  and  new  and  surprising- 
success  is  attending  those  who  keep  pace  with  the  advance. 

In  the  domain  of  surgery  it  would  be  too  tedious  to  particu- 
larize the  progress.  With  chloroform  as  the  presiding  almoner 
of  peace,  the  dislocated  joint,  by  scientific  manipulation,  falls 
into  its  socket  without  the  seven  mechanical  powers  ;  and 
French  surgery,  during  the  past  year,  even  reports  the  reduc- 
tion of  a  broken  neck.  The  broken  bone  no  longer  consigns 
the  patient  to  weeks  of  bed-ridden  impatience,  and  exsection 
and  resection  preserve  many  a  limb,  once  buried  before  its 
time.  The  system  of  extension  and  counter  extension  no  longer 
means  a  cumbersome  appliance  of  boards,  and  bandages,  and 
dragging  weights,  but  with  simple  adhesive  plaster,  or  Smith's 
anterior  splint,  ease  and  motion  are  alike  secured.  The 
pitiable  sufferer  from  hip  disease,  no  longer  lingers  long- 
months  of  weary  confinement,  but  with  well  adjusted  splints 
walks  forth  to  breathe  that  air  which  is  health  to  his  bones 
and  doeth  good  like  a  medicine. 

The  swollen  epiglottis  no  longer  necessarily  proves  fatal,  and 
had  George  Washington  lived  in  our  day  his  valuable  life  might 
have  been  prolonged  for  many  years.  Plastic  operations,  if  we 
can  judge  from  growing  custom  have  made  hare-lip  popular, 
while  the  orthopoedist  has  no  apology  to  offer  for  any  limping 
Mephibosheth  he  may  meet. 

The  beautiful  system  of  arterial  lignature,  as  with  silken  or 
silver  thread,  it  has  passed  from  one  success  to  another,  has 
recorded  the  grandest  triumj^hs  of  modern  surgery,  until  since 
last  we  met,  it  has  reached  the  climax  of  its  achievements  in  a 
successful  tieing  of  the  ateria  innominata.  With  wounds  and 
bruises  and  putrifying  sores  we  deal  in  a  simpler  and  more  suc- 
cessful way,  while  diseases  of  the  joints  are  less  fatal  than  for- 
merly. Hernia  admits  of  many  a  radical  cure,  and  encysted 
dropsy,  and  ovarian  tumors  are  not  unfrequently  relieved  by 
operations,  which  by  their  extent,  and  length,  and  boldness^ 
seem  to  the  unpracticed  eye  almost  superhuman.     Contracted 


32  MEDICAL  SOCIETY   OF  NEW-JERSEY. 

tendons  yield  to  mechanical  contrivances  ;  and  spinal  curvatures 
resume  the  g-racefnl  symmetry  with  which  nature  has  elaborat- 
ed the  great  flexible  column  of  upright  humanity.  Scientific 
ingenuity  has  provided  us  with  the  microscope,  the  ophal- 
mascope,  the  laryngoscope,  in  such  rapid  succession,  that  we 
have  yet  only  partially  profited  b}'  their  augmenting  revela- 
tions. Numberless  minor  instruments  have  simplified  or  ren- 
dered possible  mau}^  operations  ;  wooden  limbs  are  walking 
as  if  with  the  comfort  and  agility  of  living  calibre  ;  and  in  the 
various  departments  of  mechanical  appliance  we  are  daily  prov- 
ing, by  our  success,  how  nuich  can  be  done  externally  to  over- 
come the  invasions  of  disease  and  injury. 

In  a  word,  our  profession  in  all  its  departments,  is  teeming 
with  the  trophies  of  recent  success,  and  is  bidding  its  votaries 
to  keep  pace  with  its  advancing  triumphs. 

As  thus  we  have  glanced  over  the  field  of  vision  presented 
in  this  hasty  review,  there  is  found  enough  to  thrill  the  heart 
of  science  with  zealous  enthusiasm,  and  to  warm  the  practi- 
tioner of  medicine  with  all  the  glowing  energy  of  a  living,  ad- 
vancing art. 

Such,  my  fellow  laborers,  is  the  nobie  calling  Which  we  have 
selected  as  ours,  among  the  leirned  professions.  In  the  name 
of  all  that  is  precious  in  humanity,  of  all  that  is  joyful  in  the 
ecstacy  of  advancing  knowledge  and  successful  application,  I 
bid  you  hail !  Called  by  your  kind  preference  to  the  highest 
honor  within  the  gift  of  the  Profession  of  this  State,  I  desire 
to  magnify  my  office  only  by  endeavoring  to  arouse  one  and 
all  to  an  adequate  appreciation  of  the  power  and  progress  of 
our  noble  vocation.  When  I  address  you  as  the  Fellows  and 
Delegates  of  the  State  Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey;  I  call 
you  by  no  common  name.  With  it  are  intertwined  not  only 
the  precious  memories  of  ninety  and  nine  years  full  of  friend- 
ship and  renown,  but  the  devotion  of  true  men  to  a  glorious, 
scientific  art ;  the  majestic  campaign  of  an  organized  battal- 
ion against  the  encroachments  of- disease  ;  the  unflinching 
valor  of  tried  heroes,  battling  with  life-energ}'  against  the 
grim  forces  of  Death.     It  is  the  combination  of  learning  and 


president's  address.  33 

experience  ripened  into  accurate  judgment,  and  wielded  with 
intelli!2:ent  skill,  in  order  that  the  a;^ed  grandparent  may  still 
occupy  the  good  old  family  chair  ;  that  the  bonds  of  conjugal 
affection,  cemented  in  love,  may  not  be  rudely  severed  by  the 
untimely  separations  of  the  grave  ;  that  the  prattling  cherub 
may  still  cheer  the  household  with  his  ringing  laugh  ;  that  the 
fond  parents  may  still  gather  their  loved  ones,  like  olives, 
about  the  table,  and  that  all  the  sweet  amenities  that  render 
life  a  social,  holy  joy,  may  be  prolonged  as  much  as  the  insta- 
bility of  the  world  will  permit. 

Consecrated  to  such  work,  we  meet,  that  our  plighted  vows 
may  be  renewed.  We  review  the  past,  that  we  may  gather 
strength  for  the  future  ;  we  grasp  the  hand  of  professional 
friendship,  that  we  may  warm  our  mutual  sympathies  to  no- 
bler and  stronger  endurance.  We  trace  our  progress,  and  re- 
cord our  success  only  that  we  may  rise  up  and  tread  the  road 
that  leads  to  more  ;  we  compare  our  experience,  that  each 
may  profit  by  that  of  the  other,  and  thus  hope  to  return  to 
OUT  respective  fields  of  labor,  the  better  prepared  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  disease. 

Thus,  in  our  own  appropriate  spheres,  we  will  do  our  part 
to  make  America,  in  the  triumph  of  her  arts,  coequal  with 
America  in  the  triumph  of  her  arms.  Over  all  the  broad  do- 
main we  will  spread  the  protecting  B3gis  of  the  Healing  Art ; 
and  while  others  are  battling  for  the  nation's  life,  with  the 
booming  roar  of  the  sea-fight  or  the  terrible  conflicts  of  the 
battle-field,  we  will  bring  sanitary  and  prophylactic  science  to 
bear,  in  hold,  hospital  and  camp,  will  care  for  the  people's 
health  with  the  well  directed  effort  of  good  Samaritan  admin- 
istration ;  and,  when  at  home,  the  strength  and  glory  of  the 
land,  its  men,  its  women  and  its  children,  are  prostrate  with 
disease,  unheralded  as  the  dew,  noiseless  as  the  sun,  we  will 
dispense  those  remedies,  which,  with  the  blessing  of  God  up- 
on them,  will  give  strength,  and  health,  and  vigor  to  the  land. 
With  such  high  resolves  and  strong  desires,  let  us  welcome 
each  other  to  these  deliberations,  hoping  and  expecting  bene- 
fit from  this  fraternal  and  professional  interview,  and  from 


34  MEDICAL   SOCIETY    OF    NEW-JEESEY. 

hence  shall  we  return  to  our  duties,  with  invigorated  deter- 
mination to  act  well  our  parts  as  members  of  that  profession, 
whose  foundation  is  a  true  science,  whose  superstructure  is  a 
growing  temple  of  successful  art,  and  around  whose  Doric  pil- 
lars. Religion,  Philosophy,  Philanthropy  and  Humanity  bind 
the  chaplets  and  entwine  the  garlands  of  their  majestic  ap- 
proval. 


ICI 


